Alastasia Bryan, a 25-year-old female New York City Correction Officer, was fatally shot on the night of December 4, 2016, in the Flatlands neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. She was sitting in her parked car, preparing to drive to her job at Rikers Island, where she had been working for about a month. The attack was sudden and brutal; a man approached her vehicle and fired five shots, striking her in the head and torso.
She was pronounced dead at the scene.
The subsequent investigation swiftly focused on her ex-boyfriend, Keon Richmond. Evidence revealed a chilling level of premeditation. Richmond had placed a GPS tracking device on Bryan's car three days before the shooting, allowing him to monitor her movements. On the night of the murder, he ambushed her as she sat in her car. Surveillance footage captured the gunman walking up to Bryan's vehicle and firing multiple rounds before fleeing. Authorities believe the motive for the murder was rooted in a dispute over a BMW that Bryan had leased for Richmond during their relationship. After they broke up, she had asked for the car back, which reportedly enraged him.
Keon Richmond was apprehended on December 14, 2016, by the New York/New Jersey Regional Fugitive Task Force. He was discovered hiding in a basement closet in a home in Flatbush. In addition to the murder charge, Richmond also had a history of domestic disputes involving Bryan and numerous other prior arrests. Another individual, Shirley Mejia, was also implicated in the case. Mejia, who was Richmond's girlfriend at the time, was charged with hindering prosecution for allegedly helping him by having the getaway car, a Hyundai Elantra registered in her name, stored at a mechanic's shop in New Jersey two days after the murder. Richmond had also removed the license plates from the vehicle.
In October 2019, following a jury trial, Keon Richmond was convicted of second-degree murder and two counts of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon. The evidence presented at trial included the GPS data that tracked Bryan's car, cell site records, and surveillance video that placed Richmond at the scene of the crime. On February 5, 2020, he was sentenced to 40 years to life in prison.
